Andy Martino | NY Daily News-We would use this space to suggest that the Mets trade Jon Niese, but it might be too late. Beyond his two consecutive stinkers, last week in Chicago and Tuesday at Citi Field, “teams are scared of his shoulder, fair or not,” as one executive of a club once interested in Niese put it. “They missed their window to get a lot for him.” Still, the Mets should use the next few months to see if they can disprove that, and make room for the younger guns forcing their way into the rotation. Perhaps Niese’s reasonable contract would generate enough value for the Mets to fill one of their more modest needs, like bench or bullpen help. It’s worth a shot, at least.

(Chris Soto: Well that's quite the overreaction. Daily Fantasy League players were very quick to point out before the game that the current crop of Cardinals have fared EXTREMELY well against Niese so this game was not a good match-up for him to begin with. Before last night's results, the line-up the Cardinals used had a .385 AVG with a 1.028 OPS against Niese. Just forget about this one, he was destined to fail last night.)Joe D | Metsmerized Online-It was a night of give and take for second baseman Daniel Murphy on Tuesday night. Murphy accounted for both Mets runs on a two-run homer in the fourth inning that came within inches inside the right-field foul pole. Murphy now has an amazing 22 RBI to lead the team and is on pace for roughly 100 this season. No other Met is close. However, Murphy’s exuberance soon faded when he failed to cover first base on a bunt attempt by Wacha in the sixth inning.(Chris Soto: Murphy's gaff last night was a result of having a corner IF mentality at 2B. Murphy's first reaction was to charge to bunt to make a play at home....but the 2B's job is to cover the bag. Like we said with Flores....this is what you get with Murphy. High offensive output at a primarily weak offensive position in baseball, but poor defense. You just hope that the offense outweighs the defense which it has so far in the month of May.)Zach Braziller | New York Post-Swing at strikes. It sounds simple. It’s a basic component for any successful hitter, a skill Juan Lagares is still trying to master. The Mets center fielder, manager Terry Collins and hitting coach Kevin Long all agreed Lagares’ recent struggles are connected to him expanding the strike zone, chasing pitches he either can’t hit or won’t do much damage with. “Maybe he’s trying too hard to command [the strike zone],” Long said. “At this point, he’s [gone] a little bit backwards, but he’ll keep working at it. He’ll get it right.” “I try to come back to the approach I was [using] before,” Lagares said. “The only thing you can control is keep working hard and try to do the best you can out there.”(Chris Soto: Lagares is in a deep slump right now and Zach is right in referencing that he's swinging at a lot of pitches out of the strike zone. Whenever I think of Juan Lagares, I always bring myself back to when the Mets initially had Carlos Gomez. Gomez was not a highly publicized prospect coming up as he didn't have much power and was more of a speed/defense CF. When Gomez first came up to the MLB, he was swinging at 40% of the pitches outside of the strike zone and only 65% of pitches inside the zone. Surprise, surprise....Lagares' rates right now are 39% outside the zone and 66% in the zone. Gomez eventually made the adjustment an improved that in zone rate to almost 80% so it most certainly possible for Lagares to do it. Let's just hope that it doesn't take 1,500 plate appearances [3 seasons] like it took Gomez to do it.)Adam Rubin | ESPN New York- New York Mets general manager Sandy Alderson preached patience with Bobby Parnell, whose velocity continues to sag in minor league appearances. His velocity remained in the 90-92 mph range, although “occasionally” was higher, according to Alderson. Manager Terry Collins said Parnell is having issues with control as well. “The velocity is in there, but we haven’t seen it consistently yet,” Alderson said. Parnell underwent Tommy John surgery on April 8, 2014.

(Chris Soto: We've been so spoiled by Harvey that we have forgotten that THIS is how Tommy John recipients normally progress. While Harvey had 18 months to recover and build strength, Parnell is barely over a year removed. He is likely to continue struggling until at least the summer time in my opinion so fans shouldn't expect Parnell to be of assistance until then. Now on the flip side, Victor Black has look really good in his 2nd round of rehab appearances so far. It's far more reasonable to think that Black could potentially be back before the end of this month.)

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Im interested in everyone's thoughts on the rotation situatuon.......Yes, I get it, Noah and Matz are already better than Gee and Niese in stuff, potential, pretty much everything. But they are rookies. In an age of pitch restriction. .........So, even adding the injury history factor with Gee/Niese, can we count on Noah and Matz to pitch into October, and then perhaps come out of the bullpen in playoffs for additional innings? How many innings can they throw this year?What, do we ride them through September, with Gee and niese gone one way or another, and then shut them down in favor of spare parts to assist a possible harvey/colon/degrom playoff rotation? What is best?

In my opinion, Syndergaard has nothing more to gain in AAA so I think you HAVE to roll with him at the MLB level going forward. As for Matz, since he has so few innings in AAA (compared to Syndergaard) I think you can afford to keep him in AAA for as long as possible or until another MLB injury happens.

If I'm Sandy Alderson, I'm calling the LA Dodgers and offering Dillon Gee for C prospect Julian Leon. Dodgers rotation is a mess with no consistency after Kershaw/Grienke.

After d'Arnaud/Plawecki, the mets pipeline of catching prospect is pretty much bone dry now so they could use a replenishment in the lower minors

It may be that Sandy will stash Noah at AAA, save a year on service time, to give himself the extra time he needs to pull off a trade. It feels early right now, and he's not at an advantageous position.

I think the innings limit on Noah is a real issue, but frankly, I'd ignore it and push forward. It can be addressed, if at all, at a later date.

Matz is going to have to wait.

Montero? Well, it's too bad he flunked the bullpen audition, because that's where he really could have helped this team. I don't know that the organization has managed his career all that well to date.

Niese looks hurt to me, a guy who is gutting it out, largely getting it done, but without any real crispness to his pitches. The pure "stuff" is not what it used to be.

Regardless of Niese last start I think we all knew that with Colon, Gee, Niese it was a good time to sell high. Colon and Niese have dropped off and Gee got hurt. I'm sure they will have more good starts but they probably wont look as appealing as they did a couple of weeks ago.

Over the winter, nobody wanted Colon because of the contract. Why take that risk? No one wanted Niese because of concerns over his shoulder. No one wanted Gee because he's only okay, and not worth giving up much in return.

The fault may be that Sandy holds out for decent returns when, in the interest of the immediate team, maybe he should just dump. Yet with all the injuries to pitching these days, trading away healthy pitchers doesn't make a lot of sense -- particularly with less than 1/4 of the season in the books.

That's why I think he'll be tempted to return Noah to AAA for three weeks, giving the market time to come together. Of course, by then the Brewers and others will be putting more interesting pitchers on the market.

I'd love to see Sandy make a trade, but I don't pretend to think that there have really been decent trades to be made.

Hobie, the minors have some truly awful hitting catchers. Check out my minor league update tomorrow. Good question where the Cuban will end up. Also not so sure how good he is. I think he was a .256 hitter in Cuba, so he seems iffy right there.0

Murphey had another Murph last night. Anybody keeping track of these? I.e., a play that has the same impact of & is as infuriating as an error but doesn't statistically count as one. Niese could have gotten out of that inning at 4-2, at which point you still would've been in the game. But seriously, any hard numbers available? New statistical category: M.

I think Murphey's plays are more infuriating than errors. When Flores make an error it bugs me as a fan but at the same time I feel bad for Flores. He just doesn't have the skills for shortstop.Murphy problem is he doesn't have his head in the game. In Chicago he added 18 pitches to Syndergaard's 5th inning because of a mental error at third base. He thought someone like me was running to first but it was a very fast runner.I saw someone make an excuse that Murphy was out of position yesterday. He has been playing 2nd for a long time. Before the play ever happened he needed to know his role.If I were the Anderson or Collins Murphy would never start another game for the Mets. The Cardinals win games by playing smart. They play smart because they know the Cardinals management will not except less. I don't like a bad throw or other physical errors but I will live with those. Murphs are totally unacceptable. Trade him for whatever any team is willing to give.

I keep having to remind some of you that the minor league teams in baseball all tend to carry a minimum of three catchers... NOT because of their ability to hit the ball... but to just be around to catch all the pitchers on the team.

This creates a large amount of players that hot below .200 and float in and out of the DL with 'mysterious' ailments. This also allows the team to keep them around as bullpen catchers.

Many of these guys are drafted in the 40-50 rounds for only this reason.

It's hard for me to come down on Niese this early after he had pitched so well into last night's game.

I'll give him this one.

I don't know about you, but I find it hard to settle in when the Mets are leading after five innings... these are young pitchers, all with innings limitations and, frankly, this team needs two long relievers that can step in, either in the 6th or 7th inning, and give the twam two quality innings.

My vote would be to add Gee to one of those guys.

Trades -as Alderson said, they simply aren't going to happen this early on.

25-man - this team will instantly get better when Wright, d'Arnaud, and Gee are added back in the mix... just don't expect them to be 100% until JUne

I agree MackMost good pitchers will have a few bad games during a season. Niese was pitching better than he is until the last two starts. He is a better pitcher than he was in those to starts.I read on another site that an unnamed GM stated that he would have given a lot for Niese but now the Mets lost that window. I don't think there are any GMs that foolish. You make trades based on a history of success. Not based on Three of four good games or one or two bad games.If Niese is playing hurt a physical will reveal that before any trade is finalized.I still think this should be viewed as a 1985 type season. The Mets have a decent chance of making the playoffs via a wildcard. I think their chances of getting past a team like the Nationals or Cardinals in the playoffs are slim. Trades should not weaken them this year but they need to make them better for 2016-2018.Becoming a contender this year and added money the Mets could add an impact player over the off season to put them over the top.

The NEW STAT that defines the Murph play....AND the Campbell play is the BadBaseballPlay... BBP--- it is also AFFECTIONATELY known as the "DANNY", inspired by the Wacky and Wonderful Baseball Mind of Daniel Murphy.

The Mets f%@&ED!!! the same play TWICE in the same game. ...and this is no unicorn situation---it's GD Baseball 101!!!!

How about the "it's my turn...I wanna cover second" DANNIES at the beginning of the season?

How about the RF'er and his lax play on a 230 foot sac fly!!!?>??... and when is a Pitcher, other than Bartolo, going to Lay down a freakin' Bunt!!!!!!????? Hey, MATT!!!!

Anyone remember some of the Run Down Plays!!!????

What the hell did they do for 2 months in Florida!!!... oh... that's right...they spent most of the Spring loading this Offensive Megatron under the Direction of Kevin Long!!!--- well--- Thanks for Gun Show KEV!!!!!